This invention relates to floors for grain bins, or the like, and on particularly to aerated floors systems which have vertical columns supporting the floor above a base or pad so that air may flow and circulate beneath the floor and upwardly through the grain.
The present invention is directed to a grain bin flooring which may use floor plates generally of the kind described in co-pending application Ser. No. 573,969 filed Jan. 26, 84, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,678, assigned to the assignee of this invention. The floor plates disclosed in that patent application comprise a plurality of corrugated sheets having openings therein through which air may be blown or otherwise distributed to aerate the grain resting on the floor plates. A typical cylindrical grain bin has a circular shaped floor spaced above an underlying concrete pad.
The underlying air frame or support for the floor plates illustrated in the aforementioned patent application comprises bent wire frame sections of generally "Z" shape which are one form of air frame which may be used with the flooring plates and system described therein. The present invention is directed to an improved support for the floor plates and may be used with the floor plates of the co-pending application or other types of floor plates such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,558. In the latter patent, narrow width floor plates have their side edges bent into channel shaped configurations to form integral metal beams along both sides of the floor plate. These integral metal beams may be supported in various manners. For instance, short sheet metal columns formed with a plurality of legs may be disposed at a series of locations below the integral channel shaped beams with the lower ends of the sheet metal columns having ends resting on the concrete pad.
Another form of flooring heretofore used had the floor plates supported on wooden 2.times.4's or 2.times.6's resting on concrete block columns. However, the 2.times.4's or 2.times.6's were not able to be positioned vertically with the longer dimension extending vertically to provide a greater load carrying capacity as these wooden beams tended to be displaced and turned when grain was deposited onto floor.
The ease of assemblying and cost of the grain bin floor as well as its load bearing characteristics are very important to the successful marketing of a grain bin floor. The typical grain bin floor is assembled by a farmer or an unskilled laborer, which he has employed, to assemble the beams and columns onto a concrete pad. The typical concrete pad onto which the air frame is positioned often has uneven spots or uneven pieces of aggregate in the concrete exposed providing unever areas. It will be appreciated that sheet metal columns which are bent into a particular shape to give rigidity thereto may rest on such high points of exposed aggregate. Such high points cause a concentration of load and an uneven distribution of load across sheet metal columns which then may twist or buckle under heavy loading. Further, there may be uneven areas or dips of large dimensions in the concrete pad resulting in low spots so that beams may actually be spaced from the flooring plates at the low spot locations until the grain is deposited onto the floor plates. In such instances, the loading of grain onto the floor causes a lifting or a knocking over of a column or beam when the same are loosely attached or freely positioned one over another. To alleviate this, the present invention finds it desirable to secure the beams floor plates and columns to each other so that they will remain in a stable, uniform configuration even though the lower end of the column may be spaced above the concrete until a substantial weight of grain is placed on the flooring thereabove.
Accordingly, the general object of the present invention is to arrive at a new and improved grain floor system and a method of making the same.
Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved column for grain bin floors.